Screen – We Are Screen

The latest side-project of The Orb’s Alex Paterson, a collaboration with reggae/dub producer Gaudi and percussionist/vocalist Chester, eschews current trends within UK bass music to re-examine the kind of dub/global/ambient intersections that dominated 90s electronica. The metallic, technoid beats and dreamy synths of Perfect, for example, would sit comfortably on Leftfield’s Leftism, while Smokescreen overlays smoky dub rhythms with tabla samples.

It’s unapologetically hippified stuff, as you’d expect from a man whose refusal to kowtow to current fashions underpins the longevity of his career. If We Are Screen seems hackneyed at times – the opening sample asks “are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin,” a line surely bagged on countless album intros – that sense is generally offset by the dexterity with which the genre-bending is managed. Although this well-travelled trio prefer not to venture into dance music’s newest territories, then, their mastery of familiar ground is indubitable.